Efforts to limit abortion flare up in the states

States have been moving full speed ahead with efforts to curtail abortion rights even as the House's decision to eliminate funding for family planning and Planned Parenthood garnered national headlines last week.

According to Americans United for Life, lawmakers in Delaware and Georgia plan to introduce legislation this week that would require abortion clinics to be licensed and inspected regularly by state officials. The so-called "Women's Health Protection Act," based on model legislation drafted by AUL, is gaining steam following the arrest last month of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell on murder charges.

Oklahoma is "already moving on similar legislation," according to AUL. Abortion-rights advocates, however, say the legislation seeks to make abortion in effect illegal by imposing insurmountable hurdles, such as requiring screening for a broad array of risk factors.

In addition, the legislatures in four states — North Dakota, Iowa, Texas and Oklahoma — are debating legislation declaring that unborn children are persons who deserve legal protection.

And Nebraska is considering legislation that would require insurance customers to buy a separate rider if they want their health plan to cover the procedure. Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma already have laws restricting insurance coverage of abortion in private insurance plans.

One factor at play in the state push is anti-abortion activists' concern that Republican leaders in the House of Representatives might be too eager to compromise despite last week's vote.

Anti-abortion-rights activist Randall Terry has called for a sit-in of House Speaker John Boehner's (R-Ohio) Capitol Hill office at noon on Wednesday.

"We have NO REASON to believe that Mr. Boehner and Co. will insure that the House members on the Conference Committee will make this 'a hill to die on,' " he said in a statement. "Therefore, pro-lifers and tea party activists should continue forward as if today's vote was little more than a 'maybe' or even a cruel ruse regarding defunding Planned Parenthood."